In the News (Tue 20 Mar 18)

Philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy that studies the philosophical assumptions, foundations, and implications of science, including the formal sciences, natural sciences, and social sciences.

In this respect, the philosophy of science is closely related to epistemology and the philosophy of language.

A central concept in the philosophy of science is empiricism, or dependence on evidence.

The thesis of this essay is that philosophy is at an important crossroads at the end of the twentieth century in its role as paideiaphilosophy educating humanity.

Yet Weinberg himself admits to the necessity of "God-talk" in contemporary science: "Whatever one's religion or lack of it, it is an irresistible metaphor to speak of the final laws of nature in terms of the mind of God" (1992: 242).

Science, according to Jaki, presupposes a monotheistic faith whose rational foundations are in concordance with the major presuppositions in science itself.

It is of interest to contemporary philosophers of science primarily because of the way in which Kant attempts to articulate a philosophical framework that places substantive conditions on our scientific knowledge of the world while still respecting the autonomy and diverse claims of particular sciences.

Historians of philosophy of science investigate, among other things, Kant's work in the conceptual foundations of physics &mdash; in particular, his matter theory (e.g., the infinite divisibility of matter, attractive and repulsive forces, inertia, atoms and the void) and his dynamical account of the laws of mechanics.

Kant then uses the claim that science proper requires the construction of the concept of the object in a priori intuition to exclude the possibility that chemistry and psychology, at least as they were practiced at that time, could count as science proper.

Science is a project whose goal is to obtain knowledge of the natural world.

The philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy which studies the philosophical foundations, presumptions and implications of science both of the natural sciences like physics and biology and the social sciences such as psychology and economics.

Science is both a process of gaining knowledge, and the knowledge gained by this process.

Einstein's own philosophy of science is an original synthesis of elements drawn from sources as diverse as neo-Kantianism, conventionalism, and logicalempiricism, its distinctive feature being its novel blending of realism with a holist, underdeterminationist form of conventionalism.

That Einstein's exposure to Duhem's philosophy of science soon left its mark is evident from lecture notes that Einstein prepared for a course on electricity and magnetism at the University of Zurich in the winter semester of 1910/11.

Theoretical physicists helped to legitimate the philosophy of science by providing for analysis a subject matter that was radically reshaping our understanding of nature and the place of humankind within it.

To properly understand the contemporary philosophy of science, it is necessary to examine some basic components of science.

This is perhaps because scientists themselves tend to be ignorant of the philosophy of science.

Science deals with concepts and explanatory theories that cannot be directly observed, including atomic theory and the theory of gravity.

www.angelfire.com /mn2/tisthammerw/science.html (7996 words)

Philosophy of Science(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)

Science, philosophy and the philosophy of science have long benefited from fertile mutual interactions.

Since the founding of the British Society for Philosophy of Science (BSPS) c.1950, teaching in the subject has flourished in many UK universities, both in philosophy departments and in groups specifically devoted to history and philosophy of science (HPS).

Some perhaps may focus specifically on the teaching of philosophy of particular areas of science such as physics, biology, mathematics, psychology, or the social sciences; space can also be opened up for debate on more recent developments in the field, such as the philosophy of chemistry and of technology.

A lot of work was done in the philosophy of science at the beginning of the 20th century because physics had pushed so far into the frontiers of theoretical explanation that normal ways of thinking had to be set aside.

Kuhn's philosophy was quite different from the previous approach which stated that science made progress by gradually building on previous work.

Kuhn's philosophy stated that it was a revolutionary, not a gradual approach which scientific development used.

Philosophy of Science: The Central Issues offers a balanced and comprehensive survey to the main currents in twentieth-century philosophy of science.

Gathering 49 readings on a variety of topics—science and pseudoscience; rationality, objectivity, and values in science;laws of nature; models of explanation, among others—this new anthology introduces students to the often challenging problems examined by major thinkers in the field.

Combine this with thoughtful and thorough apparatus, and Philosophy of Science: The Central Issues is the most flexible and comprehensive collection ever created for undergraduate courses.

www.wwnorton.com /college/titles/phil/science (115 words)

Amazon.co.uk: Philosophy of Science: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions S.): Books(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)

This book provides a brief history of the philosophy of science, describes some logical assumptions in the practice of science and problems in science, and discusses Thomas Kuhn's scientific revolutions.

Philosophy of science, as described in this book, seems to have become a rather esoteric subject removed the daily practice of scientists and the everyday use of science.

Chapter 6 presents three problems in science: Newton's view of absolute space, the classification (by feature or by genetics) of living creatures and the whether the mind is modular or not.

www.amazon.co.uk /exec/obidos/ASIN/0192802836 (1110 words)

A SELECTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)

Pap, A. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science, London: Eyre and Spottiswoode.

Lakatos, I. (1971) ‘History of science and its rational reconstructions’ in Buck, R. and Cohen, R. (eds.) Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, VIII.

A Companion to the Philosophy of Science (Blackwell Companions to Philosophy) by W.

An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science by Rudolf Carnap

Curd and Cover emphasize work in the philosophy of science that is of importance to anyone interested in the subject, and they have deliberately tried to avoid including readings that assume the reader is familiar with a great deal of contemporary science or its history.

LOTA is a philosophy of science, a unifying logical synthesis of current thoughts and ideas aimed at understanding the deeper meaning of reality.

The LOTA philosophy of science emerged after decades of disappointments with traditional positivist methods of science, since these "classical ways" fail to give logical backing for important discoveries in psychology, learning and personal growth.

The LOTA philosophy of science provides this framework, embracing the old and the new.

History and Philosophy of Biology Seminar Series - A regular series of lectures promoting research in the history and philosophy of biology, sponsored by LSE and UCL.

International Society for History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology - ISHPSSB brings together scholars from diverse disciplines, including the life sciences, and the history, philosophy, and social studies of science.

Philosophy of Biology - Research Group - Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, University of the Basque Country.

History and Philosophy of Science and Technology offers an academic path for students who wish to combine serious work in the sciences with the humanities and social sciences.

The Program in History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (HPST) offers graduate degrees at the doctoral level through the departments of History and Philosophy, as well as at the master's level through a variety of affiliated department and programs, principally Classics, Cultural and Social Anthropology, English, and Modern Thought and Literature.

Situated in the heart of Silicon Valley at an institution with a long and distinguished tradition in many sciences, the University is surrounded by archives for the recent history of science and technology.